


Somewhere over Canal Street

by hedera_helix



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, One Night Stands, Pride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 15:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8850493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedera_helix/pseuds/hedera_helix
Summary: Levi wakes up next to a guy whom he met at a pride party the night before.





	

Waking up next to someone holds a strangeness; it’s foreign and unexpected, entirely out of the ordinary. It’s never happened here, and only once in his previous apartment – the only time besides that was a sloppy-drunken thing in the bathroom of a club and Levi doesn’t like to think about what little he remembers of it. He didn’t plan for it beforehand this time either: he’s slept in these sheets for a week, – he changes them every Sunday – there’s laundry hanging in the bathroom, the hoover is still in the corner of the kitchen, waiting to be used. None of that mattered last night when they stumbled in, drunk as lords, nearly falling over each other’s feet, but here in the light of day Levi worries about impressions, and worries about what it is about this guy that makes him want to impress him.

He’s still sleeping, a strand of blond hair fallen over his eyes; Levi can’t remember what colour they are. In this light he can see the dusting of pale freckles that were invisible in the dark club, on the taxi they took back to Levi’s place, in the apartment where they never bothered to turn on the lights as they made their way to his bed. Absently Levi wonders what time it is and how many hours of sleep he’s gotten since they finally stopped fooling around, feeling the tiredness in each other’s bodies, their kisses – interrupted here and there by yawns – growing half-hearted, soft and oddly familiar.

Levi slides out from between the sheets slowly and clumsily, succeeding in not waking the guy – his name was somehow strange, an old man’s name. Ernest? Marvin? They made their introductions too early in the night, and names ceased to matter too fast for Levi to remember his anymore. He does remember what the guy first said to him: a simple “Hi”, followed by “Are you not in the mood for a party then?” It was a fair enough question to ask someone who was sitting alone at the bar, and Levi didn’t take offence, but the guy apologised anyway; Levi liked that. As the night went on he noticed many other things he liked: how tall the guy was, how his politeness didn’t wear off even though he had a fair few drinks, how he managed to get Levi to join him on the dancefloor without ever making him feel forced. They were both horrible dancers, and they had a good laugh about it; the thought makes Levi smile even now.

He walks quietly into the bathroom, takes down the dry laundry and has a quick shower before brushing his teeth. When he returns to the half-room alcove to get dressed, the guy seems to still be sleeping, but when he turns back toward the bed after he’s done pulling on clean underwear, a pair of black tracksuit bottoms, and a plain grey t-shirt, he’s surprised to find the guy looking at him.

_Blue. That’s the colour his eyes are._

“You’re up,” Levi blurts as the guy sits up, rubbing at his face and laughing quietly.

“Sorry,” he replies, stretching his arms and laughing again; Levi remembers suddenly that his voice was another thing he liked, how gentle it was even though at the club he had to shout to be heard – he’s not so crazy about the posh accent, though. “I didn’t mean to stare. I guess I just… didn’t really know what else to do.”

“It’s alright,” Levi tells him, fighting to keep his balance as he pulls on a pair of black socks before picking up the extra pillows and throwing them on the bed. “I’m not bothered.”

“Good,” the guy mutters as Levi takes a seat on the bed; he can see him glancing at his phone but in the end he doesn’t pick it up, simply keeps looking at Levi, chin pressed against his palm, eyes full of the smile his hand hides. Neither of them speaks for a while. Levi keeps his own gaze on the fringe of his rug, looking up only when the guy speaks a soft “Hey”.

Levi hums a question, and the guy laughs, sounding nervous.

 “Are you in a rush?” he asks. “Do you need me to–”

“No,” Levi hurries to reply. “No, I’m not in a hurry. It’s my day off, so you don’t have to–”

“Alright,” the guy says, smiling. “I’m sorry, I know it’s a bit of a bother but… Could I use your shower, by any chance?”

“Sure,” Levi promises at once, jumping to his feet. “Sure, yeah, of course. Let me just… get you a towel.”

He crosses the room to the linen cupboard and pulls out a clean towel which he hands to the guy; he hasn’t left the bed, and when Levi catches a glimpse of a pair of striped white-and-blue boxer briefs on the floor, he realises he must still be naked. He thanks Levi – still as polite as he was the night before – speaking again just as Levi’s about to turn away to give him some privacy.

“You know, this is so embarrassing,” he starts, and during the second he pauses, Levi has time to imagine he’ll continue with some expression of regret about their night together, “but I’m finding it a bit difficult to… I mean, I’ve been going back and forth on whether it’d be more awkward for me to ask you again what your name is or for me to say the wrong name because… I mean, I’m pretty sure I remember, but I just thought if I did get it wrong it would be–”

“Levi.”

The guy stops talking and his full lips spread into a wide smile. “Levi,” he repeats. “So I did remember it.”

 _Shit_ , Levi thinks. _Ernest or Marvin? Ernest or Marvin? Ernest or–_

“I’m Erwin,” the guy says, extending his hand which Levi shakes quickly, suddenly remembering they did this last night as well – like meeting the bloody prime minister. “In case the details were a bit foggy for you too.”

“Yeah, they are,” Levi admits sheepishly. _Erwin. That’s what it is._ “Sorry. I don’t really do this a lot.”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” Erwin tells him, his smile so reassuring that it makes Levi smile too, glued to the spot until Erwin clears his throat.

“Sorry,” Levi whispers again, running his hand hastily through his wet hair before pointing toward the door to his right. “The bathroom is through there. Just use whatever you can find in the cupboard.”

Erwin thanks him again and Levi leaves the room, attacking his hoover and going over his floors faster than he’s ever done. He can hear the shower still running and decides on making breakfast but being thoroughly disappointed when he goes to his refrigerator and finds nothing but a bag of kale, a six pack of lager, two sweet potatoes, several onions and a selection of things in jars: jam, jalapeños, sundried tomatoes. He rummages through his freezer, but finds little else than frozen bananas and ice. He has granola but no milk or yogurt. He has flavourless, stodgy porridge oats he was supposed to eat before going on his morning run, which was supposed to end with him popping to the shop. His breadbin is empty. The bowl of fruit on the table consists of three lemons and a solitary green apple.

_Fuck._

He grabs his reusable shopping bag before marching back to the alcove and going through the pockets of the jeans he’s thrown onto the bed, finding his wallet and picking up his phone from the nightstand: two calls from mum, three messages from Farlan and one from Isabel. Levi reads through them quickly before pocketing the phone just as Erwin steps out of the bathroom, the towel wrapped around his waist, the hair that looked so light before made suddenly darker by the water. He looks at Levi, his thick brows furrowing.

“Oh,” he voices, glancing at the shopping bag in Levi’s hand. “Are you–”

“I just need to pop to the shop,” Levi tells him, trying not to let his eyes wander from Erwin’s face. “I was thinking… I mean, I don’t know about you but I’m pretty fucking hungry.”

“Right,” Erwin says and laughs, looking a bit confused. “Wow.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Erwin replies, uttering a laugh, though he’s still frowning. “It’s nothing, but I’m just… Well, I’m a complete stranger. Are you really okay just leaving me here by myself? What if I’ve planned to rob you blind?”

_Shit._

Levi stares at Erwin, only now realising the thought never crossed his mind, and he can barely believe it himself.

“I don’t know why I never even thought of that,” he mutters, scratching at his undercut, embarrassed.

“I mean, of course I’m not planning on stealing any of your things, obviously I’m not,” Erwin hurries to tell him. “I just thought…”

His words trail off as if he’s stopped to think while Levi’s still fiddling with the shopping bag, mind busily going over the sparse items in his fridge again, as if somehow he’s going to force a breakfast out of them with the sheer strength of his will. Suddenly Erwin walks forward and picks up his phone, offering it to Levi with an earnest look on his face.

“You know what? Take this,” he says. “I’d never leave without my phone, so you’ll know I won’t run off with any of your things. Alright?”

Levi looks at the phone and then at Erwin, thinks about all his politeness and charm, all the reasons why he felt so good about bringing him back to his place, and finally he shakes his head.

“No, that’s alright,” he says, smiling as Erwin frowns.

“You sure?”

Levi nods. “Yeah. You’re alright.”

Slowly, like Levi’s taken him by surprise, Erwin draws back his extended hand and places his phone on top of the dresser. “Should I get started on something while you–”

“Well, there’s really nothing to get started on to be honest,” Levi admits, laughing a bit nervously. “Just… make yourself at home. I won’t be ten minutes.”

He shrugs into a hoodie and grabs his keys before heading out the door, speed-walking to the nearest shop, a small Tesco by a petrol station. He calls his mother just as he steps inside – she picks up the phone when he picks up a basket for the shopping.

“I noticed you rang so I thought I’d check in,” Levi tells her, pressing the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he clutches a bunch of bananas, swearing in his mind as he realises he doesn’t know if Erwin is a sweet or savoury breakfast guy.

“I saw you on the telly last night!” his mother tells him excitedly and he frowns, his hand faltering as he’s about to pick up some blueberries.

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, I saw you!” she insists; he can hear the loud whirring of her blender in the background. “It was on the news, you know, they did a whole thing on the pride and they were showing bits of the parade on Canal Street and I saw you!”

“Oh, Jesus,” Levi huffs, throwing a box of mushrooms into his basket. “Mum, just–”

“Why were you only watching it, Levi? Why weren’t you marching?” she asks him, sounding profoundly disappointed. “And you could’ve told me you were going – I would’ve come with you!”

“It was…” he starts, sighing as he moves the phone to his other ear and picks up a carton of milk and another one of orange juice. “It was kind of a last minute thing. I really didn’t think I’d be going before I–”

“Or was it more of a young people’s thing, like a party thing? Did you just not want to go clubbing with your mum? Would that have been a bit embarrassing?” She fires the questions so quickly Levi can barely think of an answer, his mind busy as he scans the shelves and tries to think of breakfast.

“No, mum, it’s not–” Levi starts, nearly dropping the phone when he makes a sharp turn back to the beans, realising he’s picked up the half tin by default. “You know, I’m kind of busy right now. Can I call you–”

“Or did you go out on the pull?”

Trying to remember if he has margarine at home, Levi stays quiet for a moment too long before realising to say, “That’s not really–”

“Oh my god, you did! Is there a boy with you now?” his mother asks excitedly, lowering her voice when she continues. “Shit, am I interrupting something? Should I not have called?”

“I called you!” Levi reminds her, snatching a bag of toast off the shelf before fighting to lift the basket onto the register where a fed-up looking lady starts running them through the machine. “And there’s no boy here, mum, I’m in the shop and I’m at the register so I’ll have to call you back, alright?”

“Alright, but I just wanted to say that I’m dropping by the garage tomorrow so you can sort out that noise the car keeps making.”

“Yeah. Sounds good. Alright, love you, bye.” Levi finishes the call and starts shoving the groceries into the bag; they knock against his legs when he runs back to the apartment where he finds Erwin busily sweeping dry rice off the kitchen floor.

“I’m so so sorry,” he says when he sees Levi. “I was trying to find out where you keep your coffee and I knocked it over.”

_Coffee. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck._

“I only drink tea so I don’t have any,” Levi tells him, lifting the bag onto the table. “I didn’t even think about that. I can run back to the shop if you–”

“No!” Erwin protests at once. “No, no, no. Tea is good. Tea is perfect. And it’s a lot healthier than coffee so I probably should rather drink that than coffee anyway, so tea is… perfect.”

“Right,” Levi replies and they both laugh again awkwardly before Levi takes over the sweeping and Erwin starts emptying the bag of groceries.

As they cook their breakfast, falling in and out of conversation, Levi thinks back to the previous time he did this. Just like now, there was an understanding between him and his guest, but then it was much the opposite to this: Levi couldn’t get rid of him fast enough, and the other guy seemed just as eager to get out. It wasn’t that there was something wrong with him – the sex was alright, and so was he, but there was an unspoken embarrassment that emerged in the light of day that neither one of them could shake for as long as they were in the same room. There’s not a trace of it here with Erwin, he feels completely at ease even when he’s not rushing to fill every pause in their conversation. Carrying around dishes and food, they bump into each other and Erwin guides Levi past him, holding on to his arms for a moment and Levi lets himself believe that he meant for the touch to linger. He can smell yesterday’s sweat on Erwin’s clothes, and it makes him remember the night: the touches, the kisses.

“Thanks so much for breakfast, by the way,” Erwin says once they’ve sat down and filled their plates with mushrooms and beans and slices of toast. “I think my hotel has stopped serving it already.”

_Right. Out of town._

“It’s no problem,” Levi tells him with a quick smile. “You’re alright.”

Erwin laughs and thanks him again. “Do you not let people stay for breakfast whom you don’t like?”

“I’ve not really had the need to turn people down, to be honest,” Levi answers truthfully, piling baked beans onto his slice of toast. “Like I said, I don’t–”

“Do this a lot. Right,” Erwin finishes for him. “Well, I think it’s really kind of you. And also…”

Erwin’s words trail off and he turns to stare at his plate for a moment before looking up at Levi, suppressing a smile.

“I don’t know,” he continues, still weighing his words, it seems. “I suppose I’m glad we can…”

“Talk when we’re sober?”

Erwin laughs. “Yeah. I don’t know, I just…” He stops to sigh. “Sorry, I’m usually a lot more articulate than this.”

Levi looks at Erwin’s smile, at his Roman nose, at his bushy eyebrows, and says, “Don’t worry, I don’t remember most of the things we talked about last night either.”

At this Erwin relaxes, his shoulders drop and he sighs again, reminding Levi of a balloon that’s been emptied. “Oh, thank God,” Erwin breathes, laughing. “I’ve felt like such an arsehole all morning.”

Levi laughs as well. “I thought your name was Ernest when I woke up,” he confesses, and Erwin’s brows climb toward his hairline.

“Ernest?!”

“Or Marvin,” Levi adds. “Erwin’s kind of a combination of the two, though, so I don’t think I was so far off the mark.”

“Ernest and Marvin,” Erwin repeats, shaking his head in apparent disbelief. “Well, thank you, I guess, since you made me feel a lot better about not remembering what you do for a living.”

“I’m a mechanic,” Levi says, and watches Erwin’s expression as it turns knowing.

“That’s right, a mechanic,” he voices, sounding half-amazed. “That’s… quite sexy.”

“You said that last night too,” Levi tells him, remembering how those words made him laugh before. “And you’re a…”

“Student,” Erwin says. “Politics and international relations.”

“Right,” Levi remembers, turning back to his toast for a moment when he mutters, “You’ll be prime minister one day.”

Erwin laughs. “I doubt that very much, but never say never, I guess,” he says, still chuckling as he attacks his own breakfast.

There’s a quiet moment as they both eat and Levi keeps glancing at the rolled-up sleeves of Erwin’s shirt, the strong forearms covered with hair so light it looks almost white. It’s clear he’s not gotten his muscles from carrying books around campus, and Levi lets himself picture the two of them working out together, sharing smoothies, racing each other for the last one hundred metres of their early morning 3k runs. It’s a lovely picture and it makes Levi smile to himself.

“It was your first pride too, wasn’t it?”

Erwin’s question pulls Levi back and he nods. “I didn’t really think I’d like it but I had a good time,” he admits, pouring them a cup of tea each, nearly spilling it when he stares at Erwin for a moment too long.

_Should maybe do new things more often._

“You know, I noticed you at the parade already,” Erwin tells him, beaming.

“You did?” Levi asks, remembering how their eyes met for a moment, how they smiled at each other, how Levi thought then it was just the celebration, how it put people in a good mood.

“I don’t know,” Erwin says, rubbing at his neck. “I guess you just… caught my eye.”

“Yeah,” Levi speaks, glancing up once but keeping his gaze otherwise securely on his plate. “Yeah, you caught mine too.”

“I almost didn’t come and talk to you at the club though,” Erwin reveals and Levi scoffs into his cup.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Erwin says. “You looked a bit… intimidating.”

Levi nearly spits out his tea. “You’re joking,” he says, but Erwin shakes his head.

“No, I mean it. You just looked like… I don’t know.” He pauses to laugh. “Like you had high standards.”

Levi thinks about this and looks over at Erwin, shrugging. “So maybe I do.”

“Is that why you didn’t remember my name then?” Erwin asks him, his expression playful enough for Levi to click his tongue.

“No, that’s not why,” he counters. “Besides – I remembered other stuff. More important stuff.”

“Yeah?” Erwin asks him, and Levi nods. “What’s ‘more important stuff’?”

“You know,” Levi replies, turning his eyes back on his breakfast. “How much fun I had with you.”

“You had fun?”

“Yeah,” Levi tells him, his smile wavering as a shiver shoots down his spine. “I had lots of fun. Last night.”

“Alright,” Erwin ends his teasing and takes a sip of his tea. “Well I had fun too. Lots of fun.”

They both chuckle again a little nervously and continue eating their breakfast, drifting back and forth between talking and not talking; Levi’s surprised to find he’s nearly equally pleased with both, savouring the silences as well as Erwin’s thoughtful questions and interesting replies. He used to be a history student, Levi finds out, but changed over to politics when he realised he was more interested in a hands-on approach to world events. He confesses he knows nothing about cars, and asks Levi about his work, his interest never swaying even though to Levi himself his answers sound dull and uninspiring. When Erwin finally says he needs to go, he looks as dismayed as Levi feels.

“I wish I could stay for longer,” he tells Levi, “but I have a train to catch in a few hours.”

Levi nods, not knowing what to say, trying to focus on not letting his face show any sign of the disappointment that’s twisting his guts.

“I don’t know how you’ll feel about this, since we live in different cities and everything, but…” Erwin starts. “Do you think we could exchange numbers or something?”

Levi hurries to nod, drawing a deep breath as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah, sure, just type yours in.”

They exchange phones and add their numbers in each other’s contacts – Levi smiles when he sees Erwin’s name above Farlan’s – and walk to the door where Erwin stops, turning back to Levi, towering over him and looking sheepish.

“I was wondering…” he starts, stopping to laugh and scratch the back of his head. “Would it be alright if I kissed you?”

Levi lets out a quiet laugh but nods; Erwin’s lips feel softer now, less hungry and impatient. His hands rest on Levi’s neck and shoulder, almost chaste in comparison to the previous night when they travelled on his body, pulling at every piece of fabric they came across. Levi pulls Erwin down by the front of shirt, still realising after they’ve pulled apart that he’s standing on tiptoes.

“This was great,” Erwin says. “You’re great. I had a really good time.”

“Yeah,” Levi agrees. “Yeah, this was great.”

They say their quiet goodbyes and Erwin leaves. Levi’s hand lingers on the handle of the door for a moment before he forces himself to snap out of it, returning to his Sunday routine. He does the dishes, thinking about how Erwin complimented him for how he cooked the mushrooms. He washes the sheets, still smelling Erwin on them when he pulls them off the bed. He cleans the bathroom, realising Erwin must have used his deodorant when he finds it by the sink and not in the cupboard where he keeps it.

When he hears the message coming in, Levi half-runs to his phone, reading the words four times.

**sort of wish I weren’t on this train right now**

He starts typing in seven different replies deleting every one of them before sending one out, bareboned, ascetic.

**yeah**

The following silence lasts so long that Levi loses hope, starts thinking about work, starts changing into his running gear. His phone goes off again as he’s heading out the door; it makes his heart race before his feet have taken a single step.

**busy next weekend?**


End file.
